According to the latest Europe Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report from Lodging Econometrics (LE), analysts at LE report that at the close of 2020, Europe’s hotel construction pipeline increased 2% by projects and 3% by rooms year-over-year (YOY) to end the fourth quarter with 1,905 projects and 307,093 rooms, a record high project and room count for the region. Europe’s construction pipeline has remained robust as hotel developers have purposely delayed their opening dates to await improved operating conditions.

Rooms under construction are at an all-time high of 967 projects/157,833 rooms. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months closed Q4 ’20 at 477 projects/74,481 rooms, down slightly YOY. Projects in the early planning stage stand at 461 projects, a record high project count, and 74,779 rooms.

During the fourth quarter of 2020, Europe opened 65 hotels/9,606 rooms, for a total of 289 hotels/40,971 rooms in 2020. LE is forecasting another 420 projects/58,711 rooms to open in 2021 and another 468 projects/69,490 rooms to open in 2022.

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Record high counts for Accor in Europe

With record high counts, Accor Hotels leads franchise companies in Europe with the largest pipeline by projects, at 273 projects/38,796 rooms. Accor is followed by Marriott International, with 227 projects/38,149 rooms. Hilton Worldwide is next with 212 projects/33,303 rooms. Hilton is followed by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 148 projects/23,506 rooms.

The leading brands for these four companies are Accor Hotel’s Ibis brands with 107 projects/13,527 rooms, then Novotel, at an all-time high project and room count, with 31 projects/4,922 rooms and Mercure Hotels with 29 projects/3,825 rooms, a record high room count. An up-and-coming brand for Accor within the last year is Tribe by Accor. This brand’s pipeline grew by 45% in 2020 to end Q4 with 20 projects/3,257 rooms. Marriott International’s top brands are Moxy with 68 projects/12,216 rooms, Courtyard by Marriott with 30 projects/5,451 rooms, and Autograph Collection with 23 projects/2,938 rooms. Hilton Worldwide is led by Hampton by Hilton with 86 projects/13,550 rooms, Hilton Garden Inn with 44 projects/7,358 rooms, and DoubleTree by Hilton with 31 projects, a record number of projects for the brand, and 4,113 rooms. IHG’s top brands include Holiday Inn Express with 59 projects/9,267 rooms, Holiday Inn with 25 projects/5,992 rooms, and Hotel Indigo with 16 projects/1,705 rooms.

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The United Kingdom leads the construction pipeline with record-high project and room counts

The United Kingdom leads the construction pipeline with record-high project and room counts for the country of 372 projects/55,505 rooms. The UK is followed closely by Germany with 300 projects/55,346 rooms, then France with 180 projects/21,908 rooms. Next is Portugal, at an all-time high, with 134 projects/15,985 rooms, and Poland with 92 projects/14,206 rooms.

The cities in Europe with the largest hotel construction pipelines include London with 99 projects/17,678 rooms, Dusseldorf with 57 projects/11,046 rooms, and Paris at 45 projects/6,913 rooms. Next is Lisbon, at record high counts for both projects and rooms with 39 projects/4,440 rooms. This is followed by Istanbul with 33 projects/6,291 rooms.

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*COVID-19 (coronavirus) has had an unprecedented impact on the world and the hospitality industry. LE’s market intelligence department has and will continue to gather global hotel intelligence on the supply side of the lodging industry and make that information available to our subscribers. It is still early to predict the full impact the pandemic will have on the lodging industry. We will have more information to report in the coming months.

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